Five steps to ensure your events make a real difference to business performance – especially through the people who can’t even be there

Putting on a good conference sucks up both time and budget like few other things. But, conferences also have the potential to really inspire leaders and align their actions… like few other things.

So how can you ring the changes to make the content of your event, not the venue or the guest speaker’s jokes, something that is remembered and acted upon long after you turn out the lights at the venue?

I’ve been designing, facilitating and delivering events for over 25 years. Here are five steps that I recommend to make your next conference one to remember, for all the right reasons.

Step 1. Build to a crescendo, as part of a process

Most conferences provide a motivational ‘spike’ for those lucky enough to participate, for the period of time they are in attendance. But that’s no more than the very minimum standard we should be aiming for.

Why not build some excitement about the conference, in the run up to it, via your existing communication channels?

Profile the guest speakers

Share the agenda, so participants can plan their contribution

Put out a call for questions or hot topics to be addressed at the event

Create some interest amongst colleagues who can’t attend, but have a vital role to play in delivering business performance

Let people know you will ‘broadcast’ live from the event.

After the conference, report back on the key actions that need to be taken. All part of a well-planned, integrated process.

Step 2. Create a conference playbook

An at-a-glance one page agenda is always a winner, especially for time-pressed senior execs. But similar to only reading the titles of the chapters in a book, it doesn’t give you the whole story.

So, create a conference playbook, the source of information for everyone involved in delivering the event. Start with the objectives of the event and include that at-a-glance agenda that will help you deliver those objectives. Then dive into the detail…

What are the key points being covered in each session?

What is the thread that connects all the content together, aligned with the theme?

Who is handing over to whom?

Where do the interactive exercises fit in?

How are participants going to cascade the key message?

How will you measure success?

This approach creates focus, maximises consistency and minimises duplication of effort. And it helps surface any overlaps or underlaps way before anyone creates any PowerPoint slides or even thinks about attending a rehearsal.

Once you’ve got the story of the event signed off, you can extend the playbook to cover technical topics such as, lighting, music, cues, etc. Use it as a checklist to make sure you allocate all of the actions required for the smooth running of the event. For example, who is organising the gift for the external speaker, where can participants charge their devices, how will they access the cascade pack? etc.

Step 3. Make it interactive

No conference participant ever raced to the annual event venue to sit in the dark for three days, eat mints and die in a hail of bullet points delivered by a seemingly endless procession of speakers.

The clue is in the name, participants. Presumably you invited all these people because you wanted them to do something differently as a consequence of being out of the business all that time. So, get them involved.

Turn up the house lights at frequent intervals and shine the spotlight on them

Connect them with the content

Get them interacting with the presenters

Ask for their questions and reflections, get them talking about what excites and inspires them, as well as what might be challenging

Ensure your participants are making and sharing personal action plans.

Of course, there are the traditional facilitation tools to call upon; icebreakers, energisers, flipchart activities, Post-Its sessions, break outs, brown paper exercises, etc. And these days you can take advantage of some outstanding tech-based collaborative tools too, such as those available from Crystal Interactive Meetings. Their technology enables the thoughts of the entire audience to be captured quickly, played back on the main screen and acted upon live at the event. And then, because their feedback is all held in a database, it can be reported on and followed up after the event.

I find a blended approach of traditional and tech-based interactivity is the best recipe for success.

Step 4. Make it easy to cascade

Good leaders talk about their expectations of participants in their opening address; be present in the room, listen carefully, engage with the content, make notes, that sort of thing. Greatleaders explain the key role participants have to play in cascading the key messages from the event to their teams. And then all they get to help them are copies of the slides, if they are lucky.

If you really want participants to cascade the key messages, make it as easy and user-friendly as possible to do so. They are busy people with all sorts of challenges on their time. Make a pack available that includes:

A ‘how to’ guide

A video intro to the cascade presented by a senior manager setting the scene

Some relevant and specially selected slides with speaker notes

Tips on how to get a lively Q&A to happen

Ideas for interactive exercises to choose from

An FAQ and a feedback form.

You could even make the conference giveaway a branded book to help them thrive in their role as key communicators. And then follow up to check the extent to which the cascade is happening, which leads us to step five.

Step 5. Measure and report message retention

If you really want to make yours a conference to remember this final step is key.

World-class leaders explain to conference participants that the quality of their cascade briefings is going to be measured and reported. If participants weren’t sitting up straight and taking notes before, they are now.

Then these leaders commission research, to begin a month or so after the conference, with a representative group of colleagues who didn’t even attend the event. The survey checks the extent to which the key messages have been retained, understood and even acted upon. And then they report their findings, by function or area.

This activity checks compliance as a by-product, but its real intent is to explore the extent to which those vital key messages are actually getting through to the people at the sharp end. These are often the people who are actually executing the business plan with, for example, customers.

There are of course a number of techniques available to conduct this research, but check out the Engage App, as an especially powerful tool in this space.

More passion pleas

As a video I recently posted, and I hope this blog shows, I’m really passionate about the need to move away from a mind-set of ‘we’ve always done it this way’ towards taking new steps to make your next event a conference to remember.

Try these steps and your colleagues will never forget the difference you make.

How you can have the best of both worlds

Great conference facilitation can make or break your event. But who should it be: an independent, seasoned facilitator hired in for the show or a member of staff with enough stage presence to lead proceedings? In fact, recent work suggests a combination of the two can work really well.

And more recently, I’ve been making it easy for staff from the client organisation to step out on stage as conference facilitators themselves.

External facilitators

External facilitators should bring years of unflappable experience to the party. They’ll be able to focus on process, not content, seamlessly link messages with a red thread and summarise key themes in an instant. They’ll be able to call on a wealth of well-rehearsed ad lib lines, be independent and challenging, even add a bit of showbiz polish when the situation demands.

What this delivers, as you can see from this video, is managers who are fired with enthusiasm by live events. You’ll always be in safe hands if you go down this route.

But external facilitators will never be seen as ‘one of us’ and may be treated with suspicion by some delegates. Also, because good facilitators make it look so easy (at least they should do!) audience members can be forgiven for thinking anyone can do it. And then, of course, there’s the perception of cost: “Why are we spending money on a fancy MC when budgets are tight?”

Internal facilitators

Well-chosen internal facilitators can have instant credibility and rapport with the audience. They’ll better understand the tensions and hot topics that exist in any business, be very familiar with recent events and understand the market. They may even be able to gently poke fun at leaders because they have the insider knowledge. And of course, they’re already on the payroll!

However, they might find it tricky to challenge business leaders because it’s politically difficult, even career-threatening. Their deep subject knowledge can sometimes see them drift towards editorialising, creating the perception of bias or a personal agenda. And when there’s a hitch, as there inevitably is in a big event, it’s the first time they’ve ever dealt with it – and it’s live in front of hundreds of their peers.

Effective conference facilitation: External coach, internal star

But it doesn’t have to be either-or. I strongly believe a combination of external facilitation expertise in the background and internal facilitation up front on the day can be a great route to success. It’s something I’ve helped clients with lately by acting as consultant and coach to their chosen internal facilitators.

This approach is based on two best-practice principles: prepare and rehearse.

In terms of preparation, you’ll need much more than an at-a-glance agenda. Instead, I insist on creating a conference walk-through document. Once signed off, it becomes the go-to source of information about the conference for everyone involved. It contains the purpose and objectives, the key points each speaker will cover, the links, the handovers, the timings, the interactivity, the technical cues and so on.

It also forms the ‘playbook’ for the facilitator; and, when that’s an internal person, it’s the focal point for the coaching I provide. My job then, as the seasoned pro, is to share my experience, tips and techniques to equip and inspire internal facilitators to look good and thrive in a live event.

Then we rehearse and rehearse and rehearse – presenters and facilitators alike – to ‘make it easy’ on the day.

And when that time comes, I’m there for the home-grown facilitator, dressed in ‘show blacks’ and hidden behind the control desk they return to after each session, helping them as the event unfolds, feeding them lines, and keeping them on time, on track and on message.

I really enjoy this role – and it works. It’d be indiscreet to share names and companies, but here’s a quote from the internal facilitator of a recent global event I supported: “Chris made a huge impact and really helped all of us deliver an even better conference. The script and the flow were great and well prepared and made our jobs so much easier.”

Delivering benefits

The benefits of effective conference facilitation are clear. There’s a neat summary of what it brings in the excellent blog The Competent Collaborator:

Improved delivery of the meeting outcomes

Effective use of the time dedicated to the meeting

Professional management of disruptive or inappropriate behaviours

Enhanced participation by leaders, free to contribute to content, freed up of managing process

Greater levels of interactivity, leading to higher levels of ownership of the outcomes.

Whichever route you choose, it’s our job to do the hard work – behind the scenes in some cases – to make all this easy.

How to maximise return on investment long after you’ve switched off the lights at the venue

The true test of a successful conference is not what participants say as they file out of the auditorium, but what people who didn’t even attend are saying months after you switch off the lights at the venue.

Let’s face it, conferences often represent quite an investment in terms of money and time. So why would you not want to make sure the benefit is felt throughout the entire organisation? Surely, the goal is clear, consistent and compelling messages delivered to staff at the coalface by highly motivated leaders who heard those messages first hand.

Yet all too often, when we at Axiom are engaged by clients to check how well corporate conference messages are retained, understood and acted on, frontline staff report being poorly briefed or not being briefed at all. Indeed, when we ask them about messages from a conference that their boss attended, a typical response is: “Oh, is that where s/he was that day?”

So here are five tips to help you maximise return on conference investment and get participants acting as infectious multipliers of your messages.

Set up the cascade challenge

In the opening moments of your conference, get a senior presenter to set up the cascade challenge, being super clear that participants are required to go back and brief the key messages from the event – and that their effectiveness in so doing will be measured and reported.

Highlight that a big part of their role as leaders is to enthuse and inspire their teams. As a facilitator, I often confront participants by asking which part of their salary they want to give back if they don’t think they can do that!

Make it easy to play

If you’re serious about getting your messages to live beyond the end of the conference, you’d better make cascading them as easy as possible. That means doing better than photocopying a selection of presenters’ slides. That’s like someone trying to deliver the punchline to another person’s half-heard joke, or looking at someone else’s holiday photos.

Instead, create a bespoke slide deck, highlighting three to five key messages that you want leaders to brief in, and staff to remember and act on. Importantly, include speaker notes, build in a segment for questions and answers and provide leaders with back-up FAQs.

And if you aren’t sure what the five key messages from your conference are, that’s telling you something about the conference content itself!

We often ask participants at events to rate their understanding of the key messages. We then ask them how well they believe their teams would do if asked the same question. This clarifies their task ahead.

Equip participants to succeed

Dedicate time at your conference for participants to familiarise themselves with, or better still practise with, the cascade materials you want them to use.

Doing this is a much better use of precious conference time than shoehorning in yet more content – content that no-one remembers afterwards.

Measure the success of the cascade

Follow through on the promise you made at your conference to measure and report the effectiveness of cascade briefings. Carry out a survey of frontline staff using a sample that’s as representative as you can. Be sure to go further than simply testing for compliance (i.e. “Did you get briefed or not?”). Instead, check the extent to which frontline employees understand the key messages and, critically, what they are doing to ‘live’ them locally. And while you’re talking to them, find out ‘the word on the street’ in your organisation – this often highlights a gap between the leadership agenda and day-to-day life at the coalface.

Individual anonymity helps, but do capture enough data so you can draw up league tables showing teams, functions or countries doing well – and, by implication, falling short.

In future blogs, I’ll share techniques you can use to measure success.

Keep the key messages alive

If your corporate conference messages really are key, you’ll want to keep them alive even beyond the conference cascade. Why not set up a competition in which employees tell you, in their own words, how they are bringing the key messages to life in every corner of your organisation? This could take the form of case studies, even short videos. Then get employees themselves to vote for the winners using your internal social media channels. We devised and implemented something like this for Mölnlycke Surgical.

Try these techniques and, even though you might dim the lights at your conference, you can shine the light on your key messages throughout your organisation for months, even years, to come